EM55 - GOROKA, MADANG, SEPIK PACKAGE FOR INDEPENDENT TRAVELLERS 7 nights ex-Port Moresby This package gives a taste of the highlands (Goroka), coastal New Guinea (Madang), the Sepik River (Chimondo village) and offshore island life (the Wewak Islands). You couldn’t hope to discover greater contrasts between the climes and peoples of PNG within the space of a week. PACKAGE COST: Please enquier PACKAGE INCLUSIONS Meet and greet at Goroka airport Goroka town tour including Akameku village lunch and Asaro Mudmen demonstration 2 nights Bird of Paradise Hotel including breakfast Goroka village experience (full day with lunch) Road transfer Goroka to Madang (private vehicle with driver/guide) 1 night Accommodation at Madang Lodge (Garden room including breakfast) Day tour of Madang district by private vehicle with driver/guide including lunch at Ohu Butterfly Village three nights standard twin-share room at Seaview Hotel, Wewak (2½ star) with breakfast overland transport from Wewak to Angoram by private vehicle including driver and packed lunch private-hire motor canoe transport from Angoram to Chimondo and return village tour, sago-making demonstration and cultural performance (sing-sing) at Chimondo, village gratuities Sepik River guide x 2 days 1 night village guest house accommodation at Chimondo, including local-style dinner and breakfast full day Wewak Islands trip including return water transfers, village tour and rainforest walk, cultural performance, traditional-style lunch, beach activities transfer to Wewak airport on departure EXCLUSIONS airfares meals not specified in itinerary, or meals specified as not included bar drinks, snacks, tips, souvenirs, personal items ITINERARY :
Goroka artfact market	DAY 1: GOROKA DAY TOUR Morning flight from Port Moresby to Goroka. Full day tour of Goroka town and environs by private vehicle with our driver/guide, which may include the Mt Kiss scenic lookout, the Raun Raun Performing Arts Theatre, Eastern Highlands cultural centre, McCarthy Museum, Goroka market, local artifacts displays, trout farm, coffee factory, church missions and the Mt Gahavisuka national park to view native plants and animals. After lunch at the Akameku village guest house, drive to the Asaro Valley outside Goroka town, home of the famed Asaro mudmen. Village men will show you how they make their famous clay helmets and give you a demonstration of the mudman dance. Overnight Bird of Paradise Hotel (includes breakfast).
Goroka village house Heating up stones for mumu	DAY 2: GOROKA VILLAGE EXPERIENCE Today you will spend the day in a typical highlands village. You will be picked up after breakfast and taken on a scenic drive along the Highlands Highway to a rural area. Here, the local people farm the land to support themselves with food, and grow cash crops such as coffee and market vegetables to raise income to pay school fees and to buy clothing and other needs. On arrival at the village you will be treated to a traditional welcome (have your camera ready!) and meet the village people. A small crowd of enthusiastic “guides” will show you around the village, including private homes, the village school, village church, and important village artifacts such as bride price ornaments and traditional money. You will be taken to the village gardens and shown how yams and other staple vegetables are cultivated. The spiritual connection between the village people and their gardens will be explained to you: there are many superstitions regarding the effect of people’s behaviour on the growth of the garden crops. Next you will observe your own lunch being prepared. Vegetables and some form of meat will be wrapped in leaves and cooked under hot stones in an earth oven known locally as a mumu. After cooking for two hours, the food is removed from the mumu and unwrapped. The food is very aromatic and tasty, although rather dry and is often taken with a bowl of boiled vegetable soup. In the afternoon, choose between taking a scenic hike (with perhaps a bit of pig-hunting on the side), nature study, or spending the time in the village watching the people go about their daily business. Late in the afternoon you will be transferred back to Goroka town. Overnight Bird of Paradise Hotel (includes breakfast). Overnight in the village guest house or homestay can be arranged if you prefer.
Madang Lodge	DAY 3: GOROKA / MADANG Morning scenic road transfer from Goroka to Madang by private vehicle with our driver/guide. Rest stop at the Yonki Dam. On arrival, check in at Madang Lodge in time for lunch. Afternoon walking tour of Madang township with our guide. Overnight Madang Lodge (Garden Room, includes breakfast).
Day tour at Madang town	Day 4: MADANG DAY TOUR Full day tour of Madang district Madang district including the Bilbil Pottery Village, Balek Wildlife Sanctuary and Sulfur Caves where parts of the Robinson Crusoe movie were filmed, and Ohu Butterfly Village where there is a butterfly conservation area and a chance to bathe under the 100m high Dumeh waterfall. At 3.00pm, transfer to the airport to check in for Air Niugini flight PX126 to Wewak departing at 5:05 pm. Flights out of Madang have to be off the ground before the nightly flying fox migration from the big trees across Madang township because of the risk of bird strike (or fox strike). Staff of the Seaview Hotel will meet you on arrival and transfer you. Overnight Seaview Hotel, Wewak (standard room, includes breakfast)
A view Wewak town Getting on board for Chimondo	Day 5: WEWAK / CHIMONDO (LOWER SEPIK) Morning road trip from Wewak to Angoram, a small river town on the Lower Sepik. Our vehicle and driver will pick you up at the hotel at 7.00am for the 3 hour drive. The road is sealed most of the way so the drive should be relatively pleasant with interesting scenery as the vehicle climbs through the Prince Alexander Range featuring high montane forest, and then down on to the Sepik plains, passing through grasslands interspersed with light tropical rainforest, gradually descending in altitude down to the river basin. A packed lunch is provided by the hotel, which you may eat en route or on arrival at Angoram while waiting for your canoe to be fuelled. At Angoram you will board your motorised Sepik canoe and by early afternoon you will commence your upriver journey, first battling the current on the main Sepik River and then turning off to the left and motoring up the Keram River, a major tributary of the Sepik. The first village up the Keram River is Chimondo, which has a well-organised village cultural centre. Here there are artefact displays as well as demonstrations of the traditional lifestyle. Chimondo also has a meeting house with a beautifully decorated ceiling. A unique artefact called the storyboard is produced in this village, and further upstream in Kambot. In the evening, a village cultural group will perform as sing-sing for you. Overnight village guest house, Chimondo (includes dinner and breakfast).
Chimondo mens spirit house (House Tambaran)	Day 6: CHIMONDO / WEWAK After breakfast, it is an hour’s ride from Chimondo downstream to the confluence of the Keram and Sepik rivers, then another half hour downstream to Angoram. Travel downstream is faster so this will be a quicker ride than yesterday. At Angoram our vehicle will be waiting for you at 12 noon to drive you back to Wewak. Overnight Seaview Hotel, Wewak (standard single or twin room, includes breakfast)
WW2 Japaneas turnel at Kairiru island Speed boat transfer back to Wewak	Day 7: WEWAK ISLANDS After breakfast, an open speed boat will transfer you from the Wewak foreshore (located just a few minutes walk down the hill from your hotel) to the offshore islands of Kairiru and Muschu. Kairiru is a mountainous, forest-covered island with waterfalls and hot springs – the Japanese had an operations base here during World War 2 and there are relics to see. Muschu is a low-set island surrounded by pretty beaches with great snorkelling reefs. You will spend the morning on Kairiru including a village tour, rainforest walk, cultural entertainment and tropical island lunch. In the afternoon, transfer over to Muschu and spend some hours beachwalking, swimming and snorkelling (BYO mask and snorkel or some gear is available for hire). Late afternoon, transfer by speed boat back to Wewak. Overnight Seaview Hotel, Wewak (standard single or twin room, includes breakfast) (Overnight on Kairiru or Muschu Island instead of Seaview Hotel is available, but not if you are booked on the early morning flight out of Wewak).
Arriving Port Moresby	Day 8: Early morning flight from Wewak to Port Moresby.
	TRIP NOTES Warning. This tour involves visiting remote areas where there are no hospitals and the availability of medical care is very limited. Medical evacuations may be difficult to arrange. The Sepik River area is renowned for mosquitoes: be prepared with repellent and anti-malaria medication. Some activities on this tour require water travel in native canoes that do not carry safety equipment. Individuals who cannot swim are advised against taking this tour. This tour involves light hiking requiring an average level of fitness. Accommodation at village guest houses is spartan but you’ll survive. Bedding may be a clean woven mat on the floor or a rubber mattress covered with a bedsheet. Aim to bring your own small rubber pillow or inflatable one. Mosquito nets will always be supplied. Toilets are long-drops, (sit-down or squat). BYO toilet paper. Also, bringing a battery-operated personal fan to help you sleep in the still air under the mosquito net is a MUST. Meals in villages will be based on: -breakfast: tea with fresh scones and fresh fruit, sago cakes -dinner: boiled foods or baked vegetables and fish wrapped in leaves and cooked under hot stones Village people in the Sepik do not normally prepare lunch. Rather, they graze on fresh fruit, smoked fish and breakfast leftovers during the day. You should bring a supply of small change for purchasing fruit and fish from village markets during the day – otherwise bring your own supply of daytime snacks. The food that will be offered to you at the village guest houses will be freshly harvested and cooked vegetables, freshwater or saltwater fish, possibly some chicken or pork or crocodile tail – take it or leave it ! There is no electricity in the villages and leftover food is given to the village animals at the end of the day and not kept for the next day so you are unlikely to experience food poisoning. If you feel the village diet may be too bland for you, you are welcome to bring additional favourite food items with you – village people will not be offended. Dehydrated packet pasta, tinned meats, baked beans etc that you bring with you can be prepared for you by your hosts and served with your meal. A variety of food items is available from supermarkets in Wewak and Port Moresby. Your guide will carry a stock of basic foodstuffs for the trip including tea, coffee, powdered milk, sugar, flour, cooking oil. Drinking water. You will not be given murky river water to drink. Village water supplies are piped from clean springs or rainwater tanks and are generally safe to drink. However any change in water composition can upset your gut (even drinking the water supply from two different towns in your home country). Therefore to prevent the inconvenience of diarrhoea during your trip you may wish to take your own stock of bottled water with you from Wewak. Bottled water from Wewak supermarkets is cheap and there will be plenty of room in the vehicle and the canoe for as much water as you wish to take. Alternatively you can ask your village hosts to boil and cool water for you to drink, or ask for green coconut juice to drink as this is always sterile (and yummy). There is also a new product on the market called “Steripen” which is a battery operated UV water steriliser similar in size and shape to a penlight. Stirring it through a glass of water for a few seconds sterilises the water with ultraviolet light. Steripen (or similar product) is available from most camping stores. Climate. The Sepik area is always hot and humid. Only rainfall provides some variation in the weather. The rainy season is December to March but the “dry” season also has regular rainfall, so you are probably going to get wet at some point during this trip one way or another. We suggest you pack several changes of all-cotton quick-drying clothes, and a battery operated personal fan for relief from steamy humid weather, especially under your mosquito net at night. Personal gear. For this trip we suggest you pack personal items in ziplock plastic bags to protect them from rain and canoe wake splash. Personal gear should include three or four changes of clothes, light hiking boots, plastic sandals for wearing in the canoe (shoes may get wet). Four pairs of cotton/wool blend hiking socks, a pair of light tracksuit pants or sarong to sleep in, hat with wide brim to keep sun and rain off your face, waterproof torch with spare batteries, rain poncho, quick-dry towel, your favourite soap in a leak-proof container, two rolls of your favourite toilet paper, a two-litre water container to carry with you, and your personal first aid kit. Your personal first aid kit will contain Bandaids, wound dressings, antibiotic cream (not antiseptic) for applying to cuts and scratches, antimalarial tablets, anti-diarrhoea tablets, paracetamol, Deep Heat or other muscle linament and the all-important insect repellent (some visitors say “Rid” is more effective). For sleeping, a woven mat or rubber mattress and mosquito net are provided at each destination in this tour but you should bring your own tropical sleeping bag, empty quilt cover or a bed liner of the type used at youth hostels. Bathing. During this tour you will bathe in creeks and rivers, usually in front of other people. Bathing without clothes may offend villagers. Male visitors may bathe in shorts. Ladies should bring a sarong or quick-dry shorts and top to wear for bathing. Village guesthouses and homestays may also provide drums of water behind a privacy screen where you can bathe by scooping water over yourself.